MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK BETTER COMMITTEE
Meeting Report
November 12, 2003
PRESENT: Chair Nora Cam
pos, Councilmember Chuck
Reed, Councilmember Linda J. Le Zotte, Councilmember David Cortese
ABSENT: None
STAFF: Kay
Winer, Danielle Kenealey, Meghan Horrigan, Katy Allen, Nina Grayson, Larry
Lisenbee, Jennifer Maguire, Brooke Myhre, Pat O’Hearn, Katherine Haracz
The
meeting was convened at 2:35 PM
a. Public Works/Office of Equality
Assurance Performance Update (Public Works/OEA)
Katy Allen, Director, Public Works gave an update on
the City’s Prevailing Wage requirements, including the enhancements that were
made. These include withholding payments and liquidated damages. She added that this is also an opportunity
for the Redevelopment Agency to give an update on their work efforts.
Councilmember Le Zotte asked if the Fourth Street
garage and the Fox Theater are just examples.
Katy answered yes, they are examples of how these
requirements would have been applied.
Katy then stated that staff has sent out a letter to
all contractors, bringing to their attention the new requirements. Staff has also scheduled informal meetings
with contractors to answer any of their questions. Equality Assurance staff has attended many of the
pre-construction meetings and fliers will be included in the contractor’s
payroll. She stated that the number of
contracts being monitored has gone up, as has the Capital Program. The restitution amount so far is
approximately $675,000 (made to employees).
Katherine Haracz, Attorney, Redevelopment Agency
stated that the Agency brought forward a request to be allowed to revise Agency
agreements. They would then be brought
forward to the Council at a future date.
This would allow staff to consider the law of the public contract code
and the provisions of the labor code and tailor it to the prevailing wage
requirements in the different Agency contracts. She added that this would be brought before the Agency Board in
December.
Councilmember Le Zotte asked how staff is able to
find violations if the contractor’s payroll does not have to be certified.
Nina Grayson, Director, Office of Equality Assurance
(OEA) replied that, although the City can not verify whether or not the
Prevailing Wage law has been adhered too, staff requests that the contractor
certifies in writing that they have complied.
Councilmember Reed asked how OEA handles third party
complaints.
Nina replied that, upon request, OEA provides the
third party with a written copy of the labor code. If there is an issue or a violation, the organization typically
contacts OEA and an investigation is launched (if one is not already in
progress).
Councilmember Reed asked if the public could call and
get progress reports on the investigation.
Nina answered yes, the public can request
information.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Le Zotte, seconded by Councilmember Reed, the Committee accepted
the staff report.
b. Budget Document Reorganization and
Consolidation Update (City Manager/Budget) – Deferred from October
Larry Lisenbee, Budget
Director gave an overview of the report.
He stated that the mock-up that was distributed with the report uses
last year’s numbers. It is just an
example.
Meghan Horrigan, Assistant,
Mayor’s Budget Office asked why Council Appointees are still listed separately
in the CSA section.
Larry answered that staff
will attempt to package them differently in the final report. The City Manager’s preference is to have
them organized by their portfolio. For
example, the Independent Police Auditor is a Public Safety oriented
organization and could be packaged with that CSA. Some are more generic or have a broader portfolio. They will probably be folded into the
Strategic Support section.
Chair Campos asked if
positions within the departments could be highlighted in such a way as to point
out which CSA they belong too.
Larry replied that some of
the departments are divided into several CSA’s. What staff has attempted to do is organize them within the CSA
section so that the pieces of the operations are located in the correct service
area. Staff is continuing to work on
this formatting challenge.
Kay Winer, Deputy City
Manager added that that level of detail can also be found at the back of the
budget binder.
Jennifer Maguire, Assistant
Budget Director also added that this information is also in the summary area at
the front of the binder. It can be
looked up a couple of different ways.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Le Zotte, seconded by Councilmember Cortese, the Committee
accepted the staff report.
c.
City Service Area (CSA) Performance Measurements
Follow-up Report (City Manager)
Brooke Myhre, QUEST, Manager’s
Office stated that the report is a follow-up to the September report. The purpose of this follow-up is to provide
Committee members with a sample format for the Executive Summary that will be
included with future CSA Performance Reports.
He stated that there are two sections to the report. The first section shows every single CSA and
is quite lengthy. The second section
will be the Executive Summary and will be approximately 14-16 pages. The Executive Summary will show the report
at the CSA level. He noted that the
data used in this sample is not complete or even up-to-date. This is just a sample of the format and he
requested feedback from the Committee.
Councilmember Cortese asked
what performance is actually being measured in the Executive Summary.
Brooke responded that these
are key measurement data and that Council would also receive a Detail Report
that would provide data on approximately 275 performance measures.
Councilmember Le Zotte asked
at what point discussions would occur regarding the priorities and the
measures.
Kay replied that the
discussions would be initiated at the budget presentations in early spring.
Larry added that the March
budget message would be another opportunity.
Councilmember Le Zotte asked
if the Council would be in a position to know what might be negatively affected
by making priority choices.
Larry answered that Budget
staff will have to be prepared to provide impact information.
Councilmember Le Zotte asked
if the Department head evaluations take this information into account.
Kay answered yes.
Councilmember Cortese asked if
the Department Achievement Plans align with the CSA Performance Measures.
Kay answered that department
head evaluation contain criteria modeled after corporate priorities, which are
linked to CSA performance measures.
Councilmember Le Zotte
expressed her concern that writing and measuring CSA’s might be very labor
intensive.
Brooke replied that this is
true but that the Departments feel each performance measure is important and
can’t be reduced.
Councilmember Reed stated that
it would be helpful if the performance measure update include a graphic
presentation that identifies the status of meeting targets.
Brooke stated that flags or
indicators could be added to the report as well.
Councilmember Cortese
suggested flags (possibly shaped like stop signs) with footnotes be used to
point out any concerns.
Upon motion of Councilmember Reed, seconded by Councilmember Cortese, the Committee accepted the staff report.
d. City Clerk One-Stop Shop follow-up report – Deferred from October
Pat O’Hearn, City Clerk gave an overview of the
report. She stated that using laptops
at Council meetings as well as finding ways to streamline the minutes have been
a concern for some time. The City
Clerk’s office has found that the definition of “minutes” varies from City to
City. She feels that the City of San
José’s minutes are exceptional.
Councilmember Reed stated that there is a long-term
benefit to having such extensive minutes but he asked if transcripts would be
as effective.
Pat replied that permanent, lasting records are
necessary. She stated that she feels
the narrative portion of the minutes is the most critical but there has been
some disagreement. Some feel that a
synopsis, without the narrative portion, would be sufficient. There is also talk in other cities about
switching to video recorded minutes as the official public record but this has
not been adopted by anyone yet.
Councilmember Cortese asked why laptops are not given
a high opinion or priority.
Pat replied that she is not against them but that
they would not speed up the process of doing the minutes. The data that is typed at the Council
meeting would still need to be turned into a final product.
Councilmember Cortese stated that he sees some value
in using laptops because transcripts could be reviewed immediately.
Chair Campos noted that the City Clerk would be
leaving her position in January. She
asked if the office would be able to continue with the streamlining efforts.
Pat replied that staff is fully aware of the process
and it will continue after she leaves.
She added that she would work with the person who is appointed as Acting
City Clerk before she leaves.
Upon motion of
Councilmember Le Zotte, seconded by Councilmember Reed, the Committee accepted
the staff report.
e. Oral Petitions
None
f. Adjournment
The
Committee was adjourned at 3:53 P.M.
Councilmember Nora Campos, Chair,
Making
Government Work Better Committee